My dealer (Motorwerks, Bloomington MN) made it easy to obtain a special-ordered 2012 535xi quickly when I ordered it mid-November 2011. They maintain a series of inventory cars in their BMW ordering queue. My CA simply modified the specifications on one of those cars which was about to begin production to what I wanted, at his desk terminal while I was doing the deal. It took only a month for the car I wanted to arrive. Probably other (especially larger) dealers can do this for you as well. Not exactly instant gratification, but not bad either.